Mission Blog of Chuck and Cheri Lambson

 This week we had the very special privilege of accompanying 10 Elders to the Cebu temple in the Philippines. Because of Covid restrictions they could not attend the temple until now. I’m telling you, these are fantastic young men, we just loved every minute of our time with them.  Standing in front of Magellan's cross in Cebu. This wooden cross commemorates that cross that Magellan placed in this location in 1521, which was the beginning of Christianity in the Philippines. There are two stories about the present cross. One says that this is a wood overlay of the original and that the original cross is inside. The other story is that the original was lost or destroyed and this is a replacement cross put up by the Spaniards.  Our Indonesian Elders love to sing and so do the Philippinos. The brother with the Uke is a temple worker who just got it out when he heard the Elders singing and led them in a few gospel songs as they were waiting for their next session. We made some...

  We each completed our first article for the church newsroom this week. I pasted a snippit of mine on the left and Sister Lambson's on the right. The article I wrote is about the missionaries going to the Cebu temple and is written in Indonesian (with help from local friends), and Sister Lambson's is about FSY and will be translated into Indonesian by the local publications team.  We stopped by the school where Barry Obama attended elementary school as a kid. They put up this statue in the school yard. There was no school that day so they invited us in and we were allowed to go right into the classroom that Obama visited in 2017. The picture on the right is of the whiteboard in the classroom where they had written a message to welcome him. The part I circled up in the right corner is a "thank you" and his initials written by Obama. They have never erased it. We went into Old City and saw some of the buildings from the Dutch Colonial period. The Dutch were in Indonesi...

  This week was mostly office work that does not make a very interesting blog post but Tuesday was our anniversary so we took the day off and went out to an island off the coast of Jakarta. This picture is at Star Beach, so named because there are many star fish in the water here. Here I am holding one of the star fish which they call bintang laut, literally sea star. The picture on the left is looking over the bow of the small boat as we toured the mangrove forest. The picture on the right shows how the inhabitants of the island are planting seedlings on the edge of the forest to expand the forest which is vital to the island's ecology. Last week when we went to Bogor with the other senior missionaries we visited the botanical garden that I showed last time and we also visited the animal safari outside of Bogor. The above animals are both protected species that inhabit the Indonesian Islands. On the left is the Sumatran Orangutan. The name means jungle man. Orang is man and Hutan ...

Meet Brother Suwignyo, a Pioneer in Indonesia. This wonderful man was my houseboy 45 years ago in the city of Malang. He watched our house when we were gone, cleaned, washed our clothes by hand and lived with us. He became our very dear friend. He wanted to serve a mission so he started working for the Missionaries to earn money. He didn't make much but he saved a little money here and there and bought a goat. Over time he accumulated 7 goats and then sold them and donated some of the money to someone in need and then he invested the rest into another farming investment. He rented land and did small farming and animal husbandry. With each new investment he made a little more money and continue to give some of the money away believing that he would be blessed. Eventually he was able to serve a full-time mission and at this time he lives near Bogor and still has a farm. He is also a branch president and that is why he came to the office in Jakarta. It was a very happy reunion. Today ...

This week we were privileged to attend a portion of the FSY event in Bogor for all of the youth from around the country. They spent 5 days together at a resort participating in classes and activities geared towards building testimonies, preparing for missions and, of course, making lots of new friends. We only got to spend one day there and we saw the talent shows of each ward and the evening musical program. They were absolutely amazing. Around 270 youth were in attendance from as far away as Manado and Medan. We got there a bit late and missed the remarks of President and Sister Homer of the area presidency but we got to hear some enthusiastic and encouraging words from the man on the left who is a Director General from the Ministry of Religion for Indonesia, Mr. Pontus. He had very good things to say about this event and the many other activities of the Church in Indonesia.  On our p-day this week we wanted to get to know the area better and learn to ride the busses so we made o...